SNS Summer Week 2017
by hemera7437
Summary: [Day 3: Mission] [Day 4: Hokage] [Day 5: Family]
1. Home at last

Sleepily Naruto padded out of his tent. It was early in the morning, the birds just barely awake, and he and Sasuke were on a longer mission. They were already gone from Konoha for a week. It was a fairly simple delivery mission and it was quite a relaxing one, they only had so much time because of the distance they had to cross.

Naruto blinked over to the other tent. Sasuke was most likely still sleeping, he hated mornings with a passion. Naruto couldn't blame him, he would be sleeping too if the sounds of the forest waking up hadn't pulled him out of his slumber.

But it was already too late for regrets, he was awake and he might as well do something useful. With that on his mind, Naruto went to search for firewood.

When he came back, Sasuke was awake too - well, at least he was conscious. He was sitting on a tree trunk, staring off into the distance.

Naruto chuckled low under his breath. Mornings were clearly not Sasuke's strong point.

Once he had started the fire and was boiling water, Sasuke finally showed signs of awareness. He padded closer to Naruto's fire and plopped down in front of it, not caring about the cleanliness of his pants.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty. Have you finally decided to grace us with your presence?"

Sasuke glowered at him and Naruto broke down in giggles.

"You should see yourself in the morning, teme. All grumpy and barely awake."

"Hn."

Uchiha Sasuke, people, always so eloquent.

But despite the fact that Sasuke currently looked mostly dead, Naruto couldn't help but find him gorgeous.

He had had a crush on his best friend for as long as he could remember, even though he only realized it shortly after they blew each other's arms off. It made so much sense, that he didn't know how he hadn't known it was love earlier. He truly was an idiot. Why else would the thought of Sasuke leaving his life reduce him into broken shells, leave him unable to breathe properly.

But it didn't matter now. He had realized it eventually. Now he just had to act on it.

That's where this mission came in play.

Naruto had begged Tsunade-baachan to give them both a long mission where they didn't have to do much. Just to have Sasuke for himself. Tsunade had only laughed at him and granted him his wish.

In theory everything was going according to the plan.

In praxis… well in praxis Naruto still hadn't found the balls to talk to the raven yet.

The blonde sighed. At least he still had a whole week to work up some sort of courage.

They ate breakfast quietly, Sasuke still half asleep and Naruto knew better than to bother his best friend in that state. Afterwards they packed up and continued on their way.

The day went by without any incidents, they bickered about what to eat for dinner (ramen or something healthy), but that was the only thing that really 'happened' that day.

They put up camp by a river side, even though Sasuke had complained about the mosquitos near the water, at which Naruto had laughed at him for being a wimp and not being able to handle a couple of insects.

Otherwise, it was a warm evening and a peaceful night.

The next days continued in a similar fashion.

And Naruto still hadn't talked to Sasuke. He would have to do it soon, their mission was almost over, his chance almost gone.

He would have to do it eventually.

But Naruto was still afraid. What if Sasuke didn't feel the same way? What if he hated Naruto? What if he left him again?

There were so many things that could go wrong.

And so, Naruto kept quiet, guarding the secret that he wanted out so badly. He was a coward.

It was the last night of their mission. His last chance. He had to do it now. Who knew when he would have this chance again.

Who knew when Naruto would be too late.

It was a warm evening again. They were sitting before the fire, quietly munching on their food.

"Uhm…" Naruto attempted to start his dreaded conversation.

"Very intelligent, dobe. How about you think what you have to say before opening you mouth?" Sasuke's grin was probably supposed to look condescending, but Naruto couldn't help but find it extremely attractive.

His heart beat out of his chest. This was the moment when he should declare his love to the sexy raven.

But all that came out was: "Never mind."

He had thrown away this chance too. He was pathetic. How could anyone call him the 'village hero', when he couldn't even talk to his best friend?

He didn't sleep that night.

The last day of their journey wasn't as uneventful as the rest of the days. They were attacked by robbers. They probably hadn't seen their hitai-ate and thought they attacked two civilians. The fight against them was easily won but it was a change to their quiet mission.

And they had caught them slightly unaware, as Naruto had to admit, embarrassed.

It was early in the morning, Sasuke had still been mostly asleep and Naruto had been deep in his thoughts about his inevitable conversation with the Uchiha.

That's why he reacted too late and the arrow had grazed his arm. It wasn't a deep wound, Kurama would be able to heal it in less than a minute, but Sasuke still fussed about it.

Sasuke was endearingly worried about Naruto even though he had no reason to be and Naruto wasn't about to say something about the hand still resting on his arm.

"You should have been more careful, usuratonkachi! You know better than to let your guard down like that! What if the arrow had been poisoned? I don't care that the Kyuubi can heal you, you shouldn't let it go that far!"

As Sasuke leaned closer to inspect the wound that was slowly closing, Naruto couldn't control his mouth.

"Can I kiss you?" He blurted out, surprising himself even more than Sasuke.

Immediately silence fell. Both shinobi stared at each other disbelievingly. A blush started to cover Naruto's whole face until he thoroughly resembled the tomatoes Sasuke loved so much.

"Ah, no.. Sorry… I didn't mean to.. I mean I did, but not like this and uhm... just, just ignore what I said." Naruto attempted to run away but a hand on his wrist stopped him in his tracks.

He stared at it as if it was an alien object and all words died in his throat but he didn't shrug it off.

"Dobe," Sasuke whispered.

Naruto swallowed. "Sasuke."

"You know, you don't even have to ask…"

Naruto's head shot up. Cerulean eyes finding midnight ones immediately. He only found sincerity in Sasuke's gaze. And yet the notion was entirely out of his grasp. So he did what he did best.

"Huh?"

Yeah, real smooth Uzumaki.

But Sasuke only chuckled.

"You are such a dobe."

And his smile was genuine and beautiful and Naruto could physically feel himself fall even more in love with his best friend. He couldn't help the biggest grin from spreading on his face, stretching from one ear to the other.

And he found it mirrored on Sasuke's face.

They leant forward at the same time. Their lips meeting in the middle. The kiss was short and awkward, just chapped lips clumsily sliding against each other. But Naruto couldn't help but think it was the best feeling ever.

Afterwards they sat on the forest ground, foreheads pressed together, gazing in each other's eyes. Midnight black meeting cerulean blue.

"You know, I never thought you'd ever ask," Sasuke broke their peaceful silence. "I actually never thought you'd ever feel the same way. I mean, you were always so in love with Sakura and you never showed any signs of liking men too. I resigned myself to stay your friend forever."

Even though the thought itself was sad, Naruto couldn't help but smile.

"And then this mission, it seemed like a dream, I never get to see you alone these days, you know... When you asked, I thought I hadn't heard correctly, that it was just my wishful thinking. I… thank you."

Naruto gaped. "Why thank me?"

Sasuke laughed.

"How could I not? Naruto, you saved me. You saved me from my darkness, you saved me from myself. I was bitter and I was angry and I did so many things wrong. Everyone had given up on me, even Sakura, even though she claimed to love me. But never you. You stayed, even though I hurt you countless times. And not a day passes without me regretting every single action of mine. And yet… I wouldn't change it for the world. Not a single thing. Because every single event lead me to you and I wouldn't have it any different."

"Naruto, I love you more than words can ever tell."

Naruto only realized that he was crying, when Sasuke wiped the wet trails off his face. Sasuke had only once been so open with him.

The heartfelt words were still echoing in his mind.

"I love you too," he choked out.

"Usuratonkachi," his love said.

Naruto was home.


	2. Never leave me

Naruto sighed, finally he was done with all the work he had to do, being Hokage wasn't an easy job. And there was much more paperwork involved than he would have thought, much to his chagrin.

"I'm done for today, teme. What about you?"

Sasuke was his Co-Hokage. It was unusual to have more than one Hokage as were the events leading to it.

After Sasuke had come back to Konoha, he had been put under Naruto's custody, a constant surveillance so that they were sure he wouldn't betray the village again. At first Sasuke was even contained in the village, later they both got sent on various missions to reassure Sasuke's loyalty. It was during those missions that they got together after an embarrassing moment of Naruto blurting out whether he could kiss Sasuke. And the rest was history.

In that time Naruto completely refused to succeed the position of the village leader.

After Sasuke was released from custody though, Naruto still refused to go after his childhood dream. A fact that thoroughly baffled the raven until he forced Naruto to give him the explanation behind it.

"You know, it just doesn't seem fair to you," Naruto had said. "You wanted to be Hokage too. To change the village for better. When I become Hokage now, I feel like I'll take that chance from you."

Sasuke had just chuckled and they came up with a plan. Naruto had taken on his fated job and after a year he had pulled Sasuke in as his Co-Hokage.  
It wasn't easy, with all the anger and distrust against the Uchiha, but eventually they had succeeded.

It was working quite well actually. They would split the work evenly (even though Sasuke often did more of the paperwork and Naruto did more of the public appearances).

So one could imagine Naruto's frustration when that wasn't the case anymore those days.

"Yeah okay, dobe. I still have to do something before I can head home."

There, this was happening so often lately. Sasuke as well as all his other friends had conspired against Naruto! Lately they did much more work and handed him the jobs no one wanted to do, basically pushing him out of his position as the 'main Hokage'. And it pissed Naruto off to no end.

"Ah yeah, and what is this thing you have still to do?"

"Nothing that would concern you," Sasuke said dismissively.

And the secrecy too. No one would tell him what was going on those days, they all said that 'he shouldn't concern himself with this stuff' and continued their work. Like Naruto had no place with them.

A sharp pain shot through his chest. It reminded him too much of his childhood loneliness. The times where everyone hated him, where no one wanted to have anything to do with him. Where he spend more time alone on a swing before the academy than he could possibly remember.

What if it was happening again? In his childhood he was at least used to his loneliness. If his friends, his love, left him now, he wouldn't survive this.

Naruto took a sharp breath in. Sasuke of course heard and looked up from his papers.  
But Naruto had already turned to leave, hiding his eyes where now tears threatened to spill.

He didn't go back home that day. He slept inside his old apartment, that he barely used these days but still refused to give up.

The following day, Sasuke asked him where he was, of course he did, he had to keep up appearances after all. Naruto scoffed, which earned him a quizzical look from the raven.

It hurt.

The rest of the week continued in a similar fashion. Naruto would be ushered around the Hokage office and in the evening he was sent home before anyone else.

It was painful.

By now Naruto was convinced that his friends didn't want him around anymore. And he accepted it. There wasn't much he could do after all.  
He couldn't just force them to like him.

And this way, at least Sasuke was still Hokage. As much as it pained him to admit, Sasuke did a great job and he would leave the village in good hands. He was still so proud of his love, even though the raven only brought him pain lately. Naruto couldn't just stop loving him. He would sit this through until Sasuke decided to leave him.

 _'You are torturing yourself, kit.'_

'Shut up, furball. I know what I'm doing.'

 _'I sincerely doubt that.'_

'I won't leave him. Not now, not ever. If he wants to get rid of me, he has to do it himself. And I will not discuss this with you, old fox.'

The days were long and painful and still nothing had changed. They obviously didn't want him in the office, so Naruto had left on his own accord. Ignoring the concerned gaze Sasuke send to his back while he was leaving. Sasuke wasn't genuinely worried after all.

Naruto sighed. He was sitting on the fourth Hokage's stone face, looking over the village. The sun hung low in the sky and the heat of the day had almost disappeared.

The air stirred and the next moment, Sasuke was standing behind him.

"You know, Naruto, when you don't want to have anything to do with me anymore, all you had to do was ask. I am not forcing you to stay in a relationship with me."

Naruto snorted.

"I could say the same thing for you, teme."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind."

They sat in silence for a while.

"If you got that idea from me, I have to apologize. I never meant for you to feel that way. But, Naruto, you know how bad I am with feelings. You knew what you were going into when you asked to kiss me. I am sorry for the pain I caused you, it wasn't my intention."

That made Naruto feel slightly better. At least his boyfriend didn't want to break up with him.

"Then what's this secrecy about? You always push me out of office and refuse to tell me anything about it!"

At this Sasuke gave a relieved chuckle.

"If it's just that, I can tell you. You will know tomorrow what it's about. I only ask you to trust me, it will hopefully all make sense tomorrow."

With that, Sasuke disappeared, leaving Naruto to ponder about his cryptic statement.

He didn't sleep that night. How could he? There was too much on his mind.

The dreaded day eventually came. Naruto was up with the first rays of the sun. He didn't think he could lay still any longer.

Today was the day he finally got a real explanation or the day where all his hopes, all his expectations were shattered. He didn't know what was the better option.

He opted to not stay in his old apartment but to sit on the fourth Hokage's monument. It was too early in the morning that Sasuke would be awake to show him what he meant anyway.

As he sat there watching as Konoha slowly woke up, he pondered about Sasuke's words again. He couldn't come up with a satisfactory explanation though.

Finally it was time to head to the Hokage office and Naruto couldn't wait a minute longer. So he teleported into the office instead of walking as he did normally.

But the minute he stepped foot into the room, Sakura appeared and pulled him back out of the room again.

"Oh no, you don't," she laughed. "You are not seeing it before it's ready!"

"Seeing what?" He asked perplexed.

"Oh, I'm not telling you! If you want to know, you have to wait!"

She exuberantly pulled him through the whole village, as far away from the office and centrum of Konoha than possible.

Naruto didn't know what he should think. He just let himself be dragged around and tried not to think about what would happen once 'it' was ready.

It was evening when Sakura finally stopped distracting him and shouted happily: "It is ready!"

The next thing he knew, she wrapped a blindfold around his eyes.

"No peeking!"

Naruto felt the wave of chakra when she teleported them both away. It made him dizzy, that he couldn't see anything. But from the scent around him, he guessed that they were now on the open place before the Hokage office.

It was eerily quiet for this time of day, even though Naruto could sense the presence of almost every villager.

"It will start soon," Sakura whispered.

Naruto didn't dare breathe.

"Now!"

The light was blinding when the blindfold came off. Naruto stood blinking for a few moments before he could see anything.

But when he did, his jaw fell.

Right there, in the middle of the place, stood something like a stage, that normally wasn't there. It was decorated with orange flowers and banners, although there were other colors too, accompanying the mesmerising setting. The whole village of Konoha was assembled in front of it, staring at him curiously. He himself was positioned on a long way that led directly to the podium.

And there, on the podium, right at the end of the walkway, stood Sasuke. He was clad in a tux and looked ridiculously regal and Naruto immediately felt underdressed in his usual attire with his father's cloak thrown over his shoulders.

Sasuke was looking at him expectantly.

The blonde swallowed thickly. This was it.

He hesitantly took a step forward and walked all the way up to where Sasuke was waiting.

Sasuke held out his hand to help him onto the podium and then they were standing in the middle of this crowd with everyone's eyes on them. The last time the Jinchuuriki got this kind of attention was when he was made the head of the village.

The crowd was staring at them and he was getting nervous: what were they expecting of him?

But his questions were quickly answered when a sound of awe went through the mass of people. They were staring at something on Naruto's left.

Hesitantly he turned to look.

What he saw made his heart skip a beat and his eyes began to water. He gasped audibly.

Sasuke was kneeling on one knee and held something in his hand that suspiciously looked like a jewelry box.

"Naruto, I am sorry that I made everyone keep this secret from you, but I wanted it to be a surprise," he said. "And I hope I managed to do so. I have gathered the whole of Konoha here to ask you a question, that is very important to me."

"You are my most important person, even if I sometimes can't quite show it. Even when I hurt you, please know that I will never stop loving you. And I am so grateful that you continued to stay by my side, putting up with me even in the hardest of times. I even hurt you while planning all of this and I am still not sure how I actually deserve you and why you still haven't left me."

"But even while I ask myself that, I am selfish and think, that I will never ever let you go.  
Naruto, I said it before and I will say it countless times again: you are my light, my love, my reason to still exist, my reason for not being in prison. You are my everything."

By now Naruto was crying, clutching his chest right where his heart was, as it was beating out of his chest while all his questions were answered in the sweetest way possible.

"I gathered your whole beloved village to be my witness as I ask you this question, because I want everyone to know. Because I wanted to show you how much you mean to me for the whole world to see."

"Usuratonkachi, I love you. And I ask, no - beg you… will you marry me?"

The tears still flooded down Naruto's face as he pulled his love up into his arms. He clutched him tightly as he screamed for everyone to hear: "Yes, teme, yes! Of course I will marry you! You know you didn't even have to ask!"

And then they kissed and the whole world stood still and in this very moment no one else existed. It was a short kiss but it felt like an eternity had passed before Naruto let go of Sasuke.

The tears were now dry on his face when he yelled at the crowd.

"I am getting married!"

He heard his love chuckle behind him and turned around to give Sasuke his biggest megawatt smile.

"I love you too, teme."


	3. You make me smile

Naruto was running. He didn't want to be in the village anymore. They all hated him anyway. They threw rocks at him, they threw food at him, they threw mean comments at him. He was sick of it.  
He was no monster, no 'demon', no disgrace for the village. He just wanted to be Naruto.  
But the people didn't see him as Naruto. And he was tired of it.

They didn't want him anyway.

So he ran.

Out of Konoha, into the woods, straight ahead, anywhere really. He wasn't even looking where he was going, just wanting to get away from everything. His tears made his vision too blurry to see anyway.

He scraped his bare arms and legs on the bushes but he didn't slow down.

The sun went down, but he didn't stop. He kept running through the dense forest until he didn't know where he was. Only then did he slow down to a walk, but he didn't stop.

After a while he couldn't feel his legs anymore, so he plopped down where he stood, on the forest floor and cried. Cried for everything that happened to him, because he was sick of smiling. For the moment he didn't want to put up a strong front.

But when the tears stopped, he didn't stand up. And as the chilly night wind picked up, he still sat on the damp forest floor in a t-shirt and short pants.

Suddenly he heard rustling. Something was moving in the bushes. Naruto was scared, he froze.

And then he saw it. The most beautiful animal he'd ever laid eyes on. With a vulpine grace came a fox out of the undergrowth. Naruto gaped at it. It was crimson red and looked _so_ fluffy.

And it came straight to him. He didn't dare move.

And then the wonder happened: it came to him and made itself comfortable in Naruto's lap, cuddling up to him!

That moment Naruto forgot everything that ever troubled him. This beautiful fox had chosen him. _Him._ Naruto, not the monster, the demon, the disgrace, just Naruto.

Naruto wept from joy and cradled the fox in his arms, it was a second wonder that it didn't run.

And so the blond haired boy fell asleep with a fox in his arms, somewhere in the forest of Konoha and he had the best sleep he'd had in years.

* * *

Naruto woke up panting. Why was he dreaming of his childhood loneliness _now_? Life had been going fine for Naruto the last few years, after _he_ came back to him.

Instinctively he reached out to the other bedside. It was empty and cold. A feeling of dread overcame him.

It had been many years since he felt alone, but Naruto had still abandonment issues. What if he broke his promise and had left again? What if Naruto was too late to stop him? What if he left for good this time? What if something had happened to him? What if...

He started to panic and shot up out of the bed, not even bothering to put on any clothes.

So he tumbled around his house in his boxers, hair still tousled from sleep.

When he finally stumbled into the kitchen, his panic was immediately blown away.

 _There he is._

Naruto's family.

Sasuke had an apron thrown over his body that was otherwise only clad in boxers. He looked almost as if he too had just rolled out of bed.

And he was making pancakes.

The sweet smell invaded Naruto's nose and his mouth immediately began to water. His Sasuke was still there and was making him pancakes even though the raven didn't like sweets. Even though Sasuke was not a morning guy and despised waking up earlier than Naruto, being grumpy the whole morning until he had at least two cups of coffee.

Naruto had no reason whatsoever to have a dream about his childhood loneliness when this was his everyday reality now.

He and Sasuke still had stuff to work on and sometimes they just pissed each other off too much, but they loved each other and they would stay together forever. After all the things they'd been through it was a fact.

Sasuke had not yet noticed him, he was far to engrossed on the pancakes and it was too early in the morning so his shinobi reflexes were not quite on point yet. So Naruto decided to make himself known.

"Good morning, teme."

His love turned around. His beautiful dark eyes still heavy from sleep, not quite awake yet.

"This is early even for your standards, dobe," he just said and turned around to his task again.

"Yeah, I had a nightmare." Naruto sighed and pushed his bangs out of his face while sitting down at the table. His hair was getting quite long again.

Sasuke stiffened slightly at his words, as always expecting the worst.

"About what?" he asked without even turning back.

"Me, as a child. I ran away from Konoha, ran through the whole forest before I collapsed. I found a fox though, even got to cuddle it. It had probably sensed Kurama and didn't see me as a threat. Not that my childhood self knew that. At the time, it seemed like a miracle to me. Gave me hope again. I went back to the village. Don't know if I would have if I hadn't met this fox…" Naruto trailed off at the sight of Sasuke's face.

It held a sadness in it that was normally too heavily guarded by the raven to ever show. Sasuke looked so vulnerable in that moment. Naruto almost wanted to cry.

"You were always so much stronger than me," his love whispered. "At the time you dealt with this crushing loneliness, while I was just a little brat. And when I was in the same situation as you, I broke down. And you… you… you even stayed in this wretched village that robbed you of your childhood. That contained so many people who hated you. You can't imagine how strong you are, Naruto, for still staying your happy, energetic self. I was so jealous of you. But I've come to admire it. It is mesmerizing, to watch you. You bring hope to everyone around you. Even me. And I couldn't be more grateful for that."

By now Naruto was crying silently. Sasuke had been so sincere, so open, to him only a handful of times. When they had blown each other's arms off, when Naruto had asked if he could kiss Sasuke and when Sasuke had proposed.

It never failed to make his heart pound out of his chest.

This was his home, his family, his life. No longer lonely, his heart filled completely by a smug, infuriating raven and he wouldn't have it any different.

Sasuke turned around and placed the pancakes in front of Naruto on the table.

"Happy birthday, usuratonkachi."

And Naruto smiled.


End file.
